E 



HINTS OF CONTEMPORARY 

LIFE IN THE WRITINGS 

OF THOMAS SHEPARD 

BY 
ANDREW McFARLAND DAVIS 



HINTS OF CONTEMPORARY 

LIFE IN THE WRITINGS 

OF THOMAS SHEPARD 



BY 



ANDREW McFARLAND DAVIS 



REPRINTED FROM 

THE PUBLICATIONS 

OF 

Clje Colonial ^octct^ of 2l9nssacl;tisrtts 
Vol. XII 



CAMBRIDGE 
JOHN WILSON AND SON 

Sanibctsitg iprcss 
1908 



i- :C'y 



Gift 
Author 
(P«r«on) 






HINTS OF CONTEMPORARY LIFE IN THE 
WRITINGS OF THOMAS SHEPARD 



HINTS OF CONTEMPORARY LIFE 
IN THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS SHEPARD. 

In the fall of 1634, Thomas Shepard, then a young man not quite 
twenty-ijine years of age, set sail from the east coast of England with 
the purpose of chancing the hazards of what would practically be a 
winter voyage to New England. The sailing of the vessel on which he 
embarked had been announced several weeks before this, but various 
circumstances had detained her, and notwithstanding the fact that if 
one should make the voyage at that time of the year the passage to 
Boston could not be accomplished before the latter part of December, 
still it was determined by her owners to accept for the crew and the 
passengers the peril, the discomfort, and the suffering which would 
necessarily attend the trip, and for their craft the hazard of a winter 
approach to the dangerous New England coast. On the sixteenth of 
October, therefore, the vessel was permitted to sail from Harwich, 
having on board amongst others Thomas Shepard, his wife, and their 
infant son. That Shepard should have been wilHng to incur the 
exposure of such a voyage as this, is strong testimony to the peril of 
the situation in which he was then placed in England. Driven from 
pillar to post he had, notwithstanding his youth, become a marked 
man, and it was not only evident that he could not pursue his profes- 
sion in England without sacrificing the tenets to which he was especi- 
ally attached, but it was even probable that he might be punished for 
having disobeyed orders not to preach which had been given to him 
personally by Archbishop Laud, when Bishop of London, several 
years before. He had only been able of late to practise the functions 
of his office in remote districts, and if he ventured into parts where he 
was known he was obliged to exercise great discretion and remain in 
partial concealment. It was under the pressure of these circumstances 
that he sailed from Harwich, anticipating perhaps a voyage full of 
peril, but certainly without thought that even before he should be out 
of sight of land he would plunge into a violent storm which would 
utterly disable the ship and compel him three days thereafter to 
abandon her at Yarmouth. The experience of these three days was 
full of horror, and his sermons in after years bear evidence of the im- 



1908] SHEPAKD'S VOTAGE to new ENGLAND 137 

pression then made on him, through the frequent use of marine 
metaphors evidently drawn in a large measure from this source. 

The restraints imposed in England upon the movements of non- 
conformists were at that time being drawn closer and closer, and it was 
not an easy matter for Shepard to follow out his plan of emigration. 
The exposure of his family on the unfortunate vessel in which he 
made his first attempt had resulted shortly after his landing in the 
death of the child which had shared their perils. This misfortune in 
no way altered his determination to emigrate. He and his wife 
remained, therefore, quietly under cover waiting for another opportu- 
nity to get away. During this period of seclusion another son was 
born to them, so that when they sailed from London in August, 1635, 
the family was again the father, the mother, and the infant son. Their 
voyage, although marked by much rough weather, was not unusually 
long, and Boston, the place of their destination, was gained in October, 
a little less than a year after their first attempt to reach it. 

One of the first needs of an immigrant on landing here in those days 
was a house. There were no places of public entertainment adequate 
for sheltering or feeding immigrants arriving in groups, and the 
permanent residents of Boston, even if their homes were elastic, could 
not take in all that arrived. The settlers who landed with Shepard 
were, therefore, in luck, in finding the question of house-hunting 
determined for them by the migration of the Hooker colony from 
Newtown to Hartford. Here, in Newtown, were vacant houses, so 
situated that they were available, which the owners wished to dispose 
of. They would at any rate serve a temporary purpose and were 
promptly appropriated by the newly arrived party. 

The fact that Shepard was a conspicuous man m England and that 
he had been the \'ictim of persecution was undoubtedly caused by the 
wonderful influence that he exercised as a preacher over his audiences. 
Even the sermons preached by him as a beginner were afterwards 
published without his pri\-ity. It is not surprising, therefore, to find 
him at once taking high rank among the New England clerg}'men. 
A new society, with Shepard at its head, was promptly organized in 
Newtown to fill the vacancy occasioned by the migration of Hooker 
and his followers, and when in 1637, in order to escape the political 
pressure of the believers in Mrs. Hutchinson who were then in the 
ascendant in Boston, the sessions of the General Court were trans- 



138 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [April, 

ferred to Newtown, it was Shepard's strong influence, according to 
Cotton Mather, which secured the selection of that place as the site 
of a proposed college. Already it had been voted in 1636 that there 
should be a college and that the appropriation then nominally made 
should become available, one half the next year when the site should 
be selected, the other half when the building should be completed. 
Had the site been fi.xed in 1636, Shepard's voice might not 
have prevailed. As it was, with the Court holding its sessions in 
his own church, surrounded by his own people, and with himself in 
earnest in the work, he was able to accomplish his purpose. 

It is obvious that there must have been some strong, moving power 
to influence the passage of the Act of 1636 prescribing that there should 
be a college. This Act did not in terms immediately appropriate any 
money — it was a mere promise or agreement to do this, and probably 
met with less opposition on that account, than if it had provided for an 
actual appropriation of £400 payable in whole or in part at once. 
Popular Acts which call for no immediate disbursements are at all 
times easy of passage, as was the case with resolves that statues should 
be erected in honor of the military heroes of the Revolution, in the 
early days of our Congress. When it came to making these resolves ef- 
fective, that was another matter; and so with this Act of 1636, it would 
perhaps have died a natural death if somebody had not followed it up 
the next year and insisted upon the determination of the site as pro- 
vided for in the original Act. Who it was in the General Court that 
did this we do not Imow, but what Cotton Mather says may help us to 
determine who inspired the action. The passage in Mather's Life of 
Shepard which justifies this statement makes the assertion that it was 
with respect unto "the enlightening and powerful ministry of Mr. 
Shepard, that when the foundation of a college was to be laid, Cam- 
bridge, rather than any other place was pitched upon to be the seat of 
that happy seminary." 

It is clear that Shepard's desire to secure the planting of the College 
in Newtown was prompted by his general interest in the cause of educa- 
tion. He was himself an educated man, and he tells us in his Auto- 
biography that he looked upon the College as "an opportunity of 
doing good to many by doing good to students." It was, in part at 
least, "at the desires of some of the students" that the Theses Sab- 
baticse were published. It was at his instigation that the Commis- 



1908] SHEPARD AND JOHN HARVARD 139 

sioners of the United Colonies recommended a general contribution in 
aid of the College. He stands revealed to us, therefore, not only as one 
having posthumous reputation, but as a person of command and 
influence in the community where he lived, and the esteem in which 
he was held was not only recognized by the General Court, in the 
adoption of Newtown as the site of the College, and in his appoint- 
ment November 20, 1637, upon a committee to " take order for a 
Colledge at Newtowne," but found expression in the WTitings of 
contemporary authors, especially in the prefaces with which his 
fellow-workers introduced to readers his published sermons. It 
might be inferred, indeed, without this testimony that one who has 
left behind him so many published volumes of sermons and polem- 
cal treatises upon theological subjects, many of which have passed 
through numerous editions, must of necessity have received contem- 
porary recognition ; must as a matter of course have commanded 
the respect of the community in which he lived. Now, although 
we cannot identify the person in the General Court who introduced 
the Act of 1636 ordaining that there should be a college, we can 
see that he whose influence secured the adoption of its site was this 
powerful and influential preacher who has left such an extraordinary 
record behind him, a record of homage reaching to comparatively 
recent times, and culminating in the coupling of his name as a mark of 
esteem and honor in the title of a religious society in Cambridge. 

Thus far in treating of Shepard's position in the community and his 
close connection with educational matters, we have dealt with accepted 
or obvious facts. Let us now, for the moment, enter the field of per- 
missible conjecture, in an endeavor to show a probable association of 
his name with the bequest which has made Harvard immortal. 
Shepard was a graduate of Emmanuel College and it is not too pre- 
sumptuous to say that to him as a fellow-graduate, John Harvard 
would, on arrival, have turned for counsel ; for advice ; for friendship. 
That the relations between the two were friendly, and that Shepard on 
his part esteemed Harvard, as we have just seen that Harvard must 
have esteemed Shepard, is shown by the allusion to Harvard in the 
Autobiography, at once the most touching, the most complete, and 
the most personal of the references to Harvard to be found. "This 
man," Shepard says, "was a scholar and pious in his life and enlarged 
toward the Country and the good of it in life and death." WTio, more 



140 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [April, 

likely then than Thomas Shepard, the earnest promoter of the college 
and the personal friend of John Harvard, to have been the man to sug- 
gest to Harvard the method which he adopted to make his little fortune 
useful to his country ? 

Such, in brief, was the man from whose writings I have extracted for 
the purposes of this paper, a few paragraphs ; such was his position in 
the community; and such are the possibilities which associate his 
name with the foundation of the great University in Cambridge. 

We have quite a number of publications to which we turn for 
information concerning the early life of our fathers. What cannot be 
found on the pages of one writer may perhaps be discovered elsewhere 
by the diligent student, but no matter how much we may unearth, 
there is so much more that we should like to know that we examine 
eagerly every new source of information which may possibly enlighten 
us upon the every-day life of the early settlers, or which may increase 
our knowledge concerning topics which, being common to all, and 
being Icnown to all, were not thought worthy of record. Now, Thomas 
Shepard preached continuously to the little congregation in Cambridge 
nearly fourteen years, and he left behind him publications, or manu- 
scripts which were subsequently published, numbering upwards of a 
volume for each year of his Cambridge pulpit service. He was a learned 
man, but was cut off from sources of literary study in Cambridge, 
concerning which isolation he pathetically observes, "I have no books 
about me where I am." ' His writings are. fortified with quotations 
from the Bible and references thereto, by chapter and verse, and occa- 
sionally, but very rarely, also with some general allusion to the -RTitings 
of some profane author. Some of Shepard's works are in the nature 
of doctrinal treatises, some are sermons. Of these latter, some were 
delivered when in England, others were prepared for his Cambridge 
congregation ; and it might be expected that somewhere in the pages 
of these volumes would be found hints which would reveal to us what 
we seek for in vain in the ordinary vsrritings of the day — the interior 
life of a New England household in early times. 

' Some Select Cases Resolved (Boston, 1747), p. 44. 

Again, the authors of A Defence of the Answer made unto the Nine Questions 
(London, 1648) say: " We had neither time nor Bookes ready at hand to Consider 
some of the quotations " ( p. 29 ). Thomas Shepard and John Allen figure as the 
joint authors of tills voliune. Sabin treats it as identical \vith the Treatise of 
Liturgies, which is placed among the works of Shepard. 



190S] CHARACTER OF SHEPARD's WRITINGS 141 

He who shall undertake to glean from the writings of Thomas 
Shepard such chance allusions as will help to reconstruct past life in 
Massachusetts will soon realize that the author had other motives in 
the publication of his works than to entertain his readers. This was 
apparent even to those of his contemporaries who furnished the press 
with his writings. William Greenhill and Samuel Mather when they 
brought out " Subjection to Christ," while they described his preaching 
as "close and searching," "with abundance of affection and compas- 
sion to his hearers," and while they asserted that he affected "plainness 
of speech" and did not "shoot his arrows (as many preachers do) 
over the heads of his hearers," yet felt compelled to add, " It is a stum- 
bling block to some that his sermons are somewhat strict, and (as they 
term it) legal ; ' some souls can relish none but meal-mouth'd Preach- 
ers, who come with soft and smooth and toothless words." If, there- 
fore, we to-day meet with the same stumbling-block, it is a consolation 
to know that contemporary admirers realized its existence and felt 
compelled to allude to it in submitting one of the^e works to the public 
for approval. It must also be stated that it will be evident to any 
reader of these sermons that the cold words on the printed page do not 
convey to the reader the power which made them so influential with the 
hearers, and this fact, as well, is recognized by the author of the 
"Address to the Christian Reader" in the same volume, presumably 
Jonathan Mitchel, who says, "These posthumous Editions are farre 
short of what the Author was wont to do, and of what the Sermons 
were in preaching." "Reader," says Mitchel in the preface to the 
Parable of the Ten Virgins, "if thou comest hither to carp and cavil, 
or to criticise upon each circumstantial imperfection, this work is not 
for thy turn." 

It was with the expectation of finding in these sermons some refer- 
ences to the little College in which Shepard was interested that I began 
an examination of their pages, and when I saw that "the desires of 
some of the students in the Colledge" had to do with "the more large 
discussing of the controversie," I felt confident that there must be 
allusions; inferences to be drawii from metaphors and illustrations; 
and finally deductions to be made from what was said to the audience, 

' Legal may have a technical meaning here. Legalists are contrasted with 
Antinomians in contemporary literature. They were those who adhered to a 
rigorous administration of the word. 



142 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [April, 

that would be helpful in filling out th^ stoiy of the College and in 
sketching a picture of early life in Cambridge. While the result of 
this examination along these lines was a failure, the search was not 
absolutely without result. For instance, we have in Theses Sabbatic^ 
a minute description of what may be done with propriety on the Lord's 
Day, together with a statement of what ought not to be done. If we 
run through the enumeration therein of the things permitted and the 
things forbidden, we shall find that however much backsliders may 
have sloughed away, the legal rules for the observance of the Sabbath 
do not differ much from those which Shepard laid down and fortified 
with biblical references. These rules are of sufficient interest to quote 
in full. They are extracted from the Santification of the Sabbath.* 
After laying down certain general propositions the author goes on 
specifically as follows: 

SUNDAY LAWS. 

If any work be done for any worldly gain, profit or livelihood, to 
acquire and purchase the things of this life by, (which is the principal end 
of week-day labour, Eph. iv. 28; 1 Thess. iv. 12,) this is a servile work, 
all one with what the commandment calls "thy work." Hence buying, 
selling, sowing, reaping, which are done for worldly gaine, are unlawfull 
on this day, being therefore servile works : hence also worldly sports and 
pastimes (which are ordained of God to whet on worldly labour, not 
necessary every day but onely at some seasons) are therefore most proper 
appurtenances unto dales of labour, and are therefore unlawfull upon this 
day : holy Times are no more to be sported on then holy places ; hence also 
on the other side, to rub the ears of Corne, to dress meat for comfortable 
nourishment of man, because they respect not worldly gaine, are no servile 
works nor yet unlawfull, but may be more lawfully done for the comfort of 
man then to lead his horse to the water this day. Luke 6 : 2. & 13. 13. & 
14. 5. hence also such works as are done onely for the preservation of the 
Creatures, as to pull a sheepe out of a ditch, to quench a fire in a Towne, 
to save Corne and Hay from the sudden inundation of Water, to keepe 
Fire in the Iron Mills, to sit at Sterne and guide the ship, and a thousand 
such like actions (being not done properly for worldly gaine) are not 
unlawfull : God himselfe not ceasing from workes of preservation when he 
did those of Creation : hence also such works as are not works of imme- 

' Theses Sabbaticse, or The Doctrine of the Sabbath: etc., etc. By Thomas 
Shepard, Pastor of the Church of Christ at Cambridge in New Emjland. London, 
1649. The Sanctifieation of the Sabbath . . . The fourth Part, p. 36 et seq. 



1908] THE OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH 143 

diate worship, but onely required necessarily thereto, as kiUing the 
Sacrifices in the Temple, travelling a Sabbath dales journey to the pub- 
liquc assemblies, being no servile workes for outward gaine, are not 
unlawfull upon tliis day. 

Hence the building of the Tabernacle (which was not so much for mans 
profit as God's honour) because it might be done upon the six dales 
seasonably enough hence it is prohibited upon the Sabbath day. Exod. 
31. If a man hath Com in the field; though he may pretend that the 
weather is uncertain, and it is ready to be brought into the Barn, yet he is 
not to fetch it upon the Sabbath day, because there is no eminent danger 
of spoyle the Monday after, and then he may fetch it as well as upon that 
day : the like may be said concerning Sea mens setting sayle upon the 
Sabbath day, though they be uncertaine of a faire gale upon the day after. 
Yet we must trust God's providence, who almost in all such matters Jveeps 
us at uncertainties: hence also the sweeping of the house ought not to be 
done now, if it may as well be done the day before : So also to buy any 
things at shops or to wash clothes ; if they may be done the week before or 
after, they must not be done on this day : hence on the other side works of 
necessity, which cannot be so conveniently done the day before or after, 
are not unlawfull upon this day, as to flie in persecution, to watch the City, 
to fight with the Enemy, Math. 24. 24. 2 Kings 1.2. Hence also works of 
necessity not onely for preservation of life, but also for comfort and comeli- 
nesse of life are not unlawfull : for tis a grosse mistake to thinke that works 
onely of absolute necessity are allowed onely upon this day : for to lead an 
Ox to water, which in the strictest times was not disallowed of, is not of 
absolute necessity, for it may live more than a day without it ; onely its 
necessary for the comfort of the life of the beast: how much more is 
allowed for the comfort of the life of man ? The Disciples possibly might 
have lived longer than the Sabbath without rubbing Corn eares, and men 
may live on Sabbath daies generally without warm meat, yea they may 
fast perhaps all that day ; yet it is not unlawfull to eate such meat, because 
its necessary for the comfort of life. Hence also to put on comely gar- 
ments, to wash hands and face, and many things as are necessary for the 
comeliness as well as the comfort of life, are not unlawfull now : there is 
sometimes an inevitable necessity by God's pro\'idence, and sometimes a 
contracted necessity through want of care and foresight ; in this case the 
work may sometime be done, provided that our neglect beforehand be 
repented of: in a word, he that shall conscientiously endeavor that no 
more work be done on the Sabbath than what must be done for the ends 
mentioned, that so he may have nothing else to doe but to be with God 
this day shall have much peace to his own conscience herein, against 



144 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APEIL, 

Satans clamours : hence lastly, not onely outward servile work, but servile 
thoughts, affections, and cares, are to be cast off this day from the sight 
of God, as others are from the eyes of men ; servile thoughts and affections 
being as much against the fourth Commandement as unchaste and filthy 
thoughts against the seventh. 

Such were the rules laid down for the observance of the Sabbath 
by one whose word was law with his congregation. I think we can 
find running through them an unexpected liberality of thought. 
That which was necessary for the preservation of life came within the 
line of works not prohibited on the Sabbath, but so also did that which 
was essential for the comfort of animals ; and if such consideration was 
felt for them, how much more might be done for man ! It is not unlaw- 
ful, he says, to eat warm meat on the Sabbath, and the inference is 
plain that it was not unlawful for Mrs. Shepard to prepare it for the 
table. That which was done specifically for gain was always unlawful. 
The practical definition of works of necessity and of mercy permissible 
on the Lord's Day does not differ much from what can be extracted 
from our statutes and court decisions to-day. 

But how about his congregation ? Did they observe the day along 
the lines laid down by him ? Listen to what he says to them. After 
asserting that God has set aside this day for man, he goes on as 
follows : ^ 

HOW THESE LAWS WERE BROKEN. 

And is this the requitall, and all the thanks he hath for his heart-break- 
ing love ? to turne back sweet presence and fellowship, and love of God in 
them, to dispute away these daies with scorne and contempt, to smolce 
them away with Prophanenesse, and madde mirth, to Dreame them away 
with Vanity, to Drinke, to Sweare, to Ryot, to Whore, to Sport, to Play, 
to Card, to Dice, to put on their best Apparell that they may dishonour 
God with greater pompe and bravery, to talk of the World, to be later up 
that day than any other day of the Weeke, when their own Irons are in the 
fire, and yet to sleepe Sermon, or scorne the Ministry, if it comes home to 
their Consciences ; to tell Tales, and break Jests at home, or (at best) to 

' Theses Sabbaticre, or The Doctrine of the Sabbath: etc., etc. By Thomas 
Shepard, Pastor of the Church of Christ at Cambridge in New England. Lon- 
don, 16-19. The Sanctification of the Sabbath . . . The fourth Part, p. 45. 



1908] RESISTANCE TO TOWN-ORDERS 145 

talke of Forraigne or Domesticall newes onely to passe away the time, 
rather than to see God in his Workes and warme their hearts thereby : to 
thinke God hath good measure given him, if they attend on liim in the 
Forenoone, although the Afternoone be given to the Devill, or sleepe, 
or vanity or foolish pastimes. 

Who were these renegades, these dissipated rioters and card- 
players, who slept late Sunday mornings, and in addition took naps 
during sermon time ; who thought their duty to the Church and their 
obligations to the day ended with the morning service; against whom 
Shepard was emptying his phials of wrath? Were they students? 
Were they members of his own congregation ? Surely he had some 
cause for thus admonishing his hearers, but let us hope that in his 
anger his austere spirit overstated the case. At best, however, we 
must confess that there must have been recalcitrants in Cambridge in 
those days, that all was not harmony and peace. Over and over again 
he warns his hearers in unconventional language against the vices to 
which the young men of that day were exposed and from which one 
would have inferred that they might have been exempt in a pioneer 
rural community. "Men wonder," he says in one of his sermons, 
"why, in this country men are more vile than ever they were-, men 
that gave great hopes; the reason is this, they have seemed to be 
under Christ's government, but secretly cast it off." * 

In Subjection to Christ he discusses at some length town-orders and 
deplores resistance to them. He lays down rules as to what laws are 
binding and what are not. To appreciate the full force of this discus- 
sion, it must be borne in mind that the government of the Colony was 
administered during nearly all of Shepard's pastorate without any 
code of laws. It was not until 1641 that the Body of Liberties was 
adopted and not until 1648 that a complete code of laws was 
secured. During this period the affairs of the Colony were carried 
on under the Charter, with no other provision for details of administra- 
tion than an occasional statute. Important trials were held before 
the General Court of the Company; punishments were adjudged 
practically at the variable discretion of individual magistrates ; mem- 
bers of religious societies were kept under control by church discipline ; 
and town affairs were administered by ofBcers — selectmen, we should 

' Subjection to Christ (London, 1652), p. 25. 
10 



146 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [April, 

call them to-day — whose authority was derived from consent and 
generally recognized. 

RESISTANCE TO TOWN OFFICERS. 

Shepard puts a question, "When is power cast off in towns?" and 
proceeds to answer it as follows : ' " When any Town doth cast off the 
power and rule of Townsmen ... ?" He then goes on to say : 

I know sometimes men may not be so able, wise, and carry matters 
imprudently: Town-orders may also sometimes want that weight, that 
wisdome, those cautions, that mature consideration as is meet, as also 
that due and prudent publication that all may know of them, with records 
of them. But take Town-orders that be deliberately made, prudently 
published, for the publick peace, profit, comfort of the place, to oppose 
these, or persons that make these, with much care, fear, tendernesse; If 
I know anything, is a sin of a crying nature, provoking God, and casting 
off his government, I confesse, if there be not care here ; I know no way 
of living under any government of Church or CommOn-Wealth, if the 
publick affaires of the Town be cast off.- 

Note the strength of this last sentence, and bear in mind the undevel- 
oped state of the colonial form of government. Then think how 
much it meant to say that whether under the government of the 
Church or of the Commonwealth, still there must be loyal obedience 
to those who were engaged in administering the affairs of the towns. 
These strong expressions must have been occasioned by resistance to 
town officers and repudiation of town-orders as he terms them, which 
came immediately under his observation and touched him closely. 

He then goes on to discuss the cjuestion of how far men's consciences 
are bound by town-orders and human laws. In doing this he lays 
down a definition of the source of law, which is perhaps worthy of 
notice. 

ALL LAWS FROM THE SCRIPTURE. 
He says: 

All good laws and orders inacted in any place by men, are either ex- 
pressly mentioned in the word or are to be collected and deducted from 



Subjection to Christ (London, 1652), Quest. 3, p. 120. 
Ibid. Answ. 2, p. 122. 



1908] COLONIAL AFFAIRS 147 

the word, as being able to give sufficient direction herein. For all the 
authority of the highest power on earth in contriving of lawes, is in this 
alone, viz. to make prudent collection and speciall application of the 
general rules, recorded in Scripture, to such special and peculiar circum- 
stances which may promote the publick weal, and good of persons, places, 
proceedings.' 

The foregoing shows Shepard's sympathy with Cotton, who was 
then preparing his proposed Code of Laws for the establishment of a 
Theocracy.^ We must therefore refer to his English e.xperience 
the following exposition of a legal proposition : " Its a known thing 
among men, that a Father may receive a gift or Legacy given to him, 
and his heires, and he, and his heires are bound to perform the 
conditions of the Covenant." ^ 

COLONIAL AFFAIRS. 

We can obtain from time to time Shepard's views as tb the condition 
of the Colony in its relations to the outer world. Unfortunately, there 
is nothing on the surface to aid us in determining the dates when the 
several sermons were preached from which the extracts are procured. 
"New Englands peace and plenty of means breeds strange security," * 
he says in one of his publications, but farther on in the same volume we 
find the following: "I do fear there is at this day as deep mischief 
plotting against New England as ever the sun saw." ^ This apparent 
contradiction may, perhaps, be explained by the supposition that the 
strange security arose from ignorance of the plotting. In one of his 
sermons he enlarges upon the peaceful condition of the country : 

The reports of divisions in New England are fables : The churches here 
are in peace; The Commonwealth is in peace; The Ministry in most 

' Subjection to Christ (London, 1652), p. 124. 

" May 25, 1636, " M' Shepeard " was one of a committee appointed by 
the General Court to prepare " a draught of lawes agreeable to the word of 
God, w'^'" may be the Fundaraentalls of this comonwealth " ( Massachusetts 
Colony Records, i. 174). March 12, 1637-38, " M' Sheopard " — one of sev- 
eral who were described as " elders of severall churches " — was also on a commit- 
tee appointed by the same body for a similar purpose ( ibid. i. 222 ). This 
Shepeard or Sheopard was probably our Shepard. 

' The Church Membersliip of Christ, p. 26. 

« The Parable of the Ten Virgins (London, 1660), p. lOa 

= Ibid. p. 166. 



148 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [April, 

sweet peace; The Magistrates (I should have named first) in peace; All 
our families in peace; We can sleep in the woods in peace, without fear of 
the Indians, for fear is fallen upon them.' 

Again in a controversial publication he describes the Colony in the 
following words: 

A Commonwealth erected in a Wildernesse, and in so few yeares 
brought to that state, that scarce the like can be seen in any of our English 
Colonies in the richest places of this America.^ 

It would probably be a comparatively easy matter, by reviewing the 
various episodes in the history of the Colony, to determine what caused 
these different expressions on the part of the writer. This task, how- 
ever, I shall not undertake in this connection. 

The foregoing represent all that attracted my attention in the 
volumes of Shepard's sermons that I have examined, in which matters 
pertaining to the general affairs of the Colony or of the towns were 
discussed at any length. There remain to be considered, inferences 
as to the condition of society which may be drawn from the character 
of the advice offered or warnings given by the preacher, deductions 
to be drawn from metaphors or illustrations used, and occasional 
isolated expressions of opinion which when grouped together will show 
what the speaker thought upon some topic of interest. Among these 
the most natural place to expect results from an examination would be 
the metaphors or illustrations. One might almost assume that he 
would enforce an argument now and then by drawing some illustration 
from daily life, or by making some comparison based upon a parallel 
in the ordinary experience of the residents of the little village in which 
they lived. The resources of this field are greatly reduced, however, 
by the custom which then prevailed among clergymen of reinforcing 
every argument with some biblical text or scriptural analogy. Never- 
theless we can find a few hints as to life drawn from these sources 
which, whatever their value, may prove of interest. 

NAUTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 

I have already mentioned the fact that the impression made by his 
nautical experiences is registered in Shepard's sermons. No other 

• New England's Lamentation for Old England's Errours (1644), p. 5. 
' A Treatise of Liturgies ... in answer to Mr. . . . Ball, p. 8. 



1908] NAUTICAL METAPHORS — SLEEPING IN CHURCH 149 

portion of his career furnishes so many metaphors or is so freely drawn 
upon for illustration. The conditions of a vessel in port or at sea, 
under calm or during storm, at anchor or breasting the waves, in 
peril or in safety, are all made use of. The courage of the sailor and 
his confidence under circumstances of evident danger, his prudence in 
carefully inspecting everything about the ship before going to sea, 
his caution in approaching the coast, indeed, nearly every conceivable 
phase of his existence, is made use of by the preacher to enforce an 
argument or to illustrate a proposition. It may be that if he had spent 
the greater part of his life on the ocean and only a few weeks at Cam- 
bridge, the peculiarities of rural life in America would have made the 
same preponderant impression upon him, and we should have had 
from him a record of how people lived in New England instead of such 
copious references to the experience of sailors. It is to be noted in this 
connection that it is the ship and the sailor which furnish these meta- 
phors and illustrations. The mighty power of the ocean itself, its 
monstrous waves, the cruel surf raging along the shore, have no place 
in his vocabulary. 

SLEEPING IN CHURCH. 

One inference may be drawn from these sermons, namely, that 
notwithstanding the fact that Shepard obviously relied for his effects 
upon his personal touch with his congregation, he nevertheless was 
compelled to take note that some of his audience took naps while he 
was preaching. The tendency towards this act of discourtesy would 
be affected somewhat by the length of his sermons. The solution of 
this question may perhaps be found in a reference to those "that 
come out of the Church when the tedious Sermon runs somewhat 
beyond the hour." ' While this expression is capable of a broad inter- 
pretation which would not limit "the tedious Sermon" to the length of 
one hour, it seems to me probable that such is its natural reading. 

I have already quoted the expression "and yet to sleepe Sermon" 
which was included in a category of evil doings against which he warned 
his hearers. In another place he refers to men who " neglect prayer and 
sleep out sermons." " Again he says, " We have Ordinances to the full, 

• The Sincere Convert (London, 1659), p. 69. 

» The Parable of the Ten Virgins (London, 1660), p. 226. 



150 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [ApniL, 

Sermons too long, and Lectures too many, and private meetings too 
frequent." ' "Some Sermons," he says, "men can sleep them out." ^ 
These quotations are enough to show that he was troubled by this lack 
of attention on the part of some of his hearers. There are more phrases 
of the same sort, but their recapitulation is not necessary. 

We can gather no idea from his sermons of his own pulpit manners, 
but when he remarks, "People are naturally moved by a thundering 
minister," ' we may perhaps conjecture that he had some person in 
mind whose preaching suggested this adjective ; nor does the epithet 
convey the idea of thorough approval. 

IRON MILLS. 

The reference heretofore given to the fire in the iron mills, which it 
was permissible to keep going on Sunday, brings before us the strenu- 
ous efforts put forth by the early colonists to make something out of 
the bog ore of New England. 

HOUSEWORK. 

We have seen that washing clothes was not permissible on Sunday, 
and that sweeping ought not to be done on that day if it could be done 
on Saturday. I have met with one other allusion of interest to the 
house-wife, namely: "Doth he not let thee like a broom, lie behind 
the door?" * Evidently broom closets were uncommon, and as for 
the broom itself, we must not think of it as made of broom corn. 
Probably it was made of birch or willow twigs. The phrase, "Here 
are no sour herbs to make the Lamb sweet," ^ may perhaps be re- 
garded as pertaining to the domain of the kitchen. 

TABLE MANNERS. 

As for hints at daily life there are few. "Its from the excellency 
of a knife to cut well, but to cut my fingers with it when I should be 

' The Parable of the Ten Virgins (London, 1660), part ii. p. 5. 

= Ibid. p. 6, 

^ Some Select Cases Resolved (Boston, 1747) , p. 49. 

* The Parable, p. 103. 

' Ibid. p. 106. 



1908] GARDENING — CHURCH DISCIPLINE 151 

cutting my meat with it, ariseth not from the end of the knife, nor 
from the intention of him who made it," ' is, however, a reference to 
a daily peril at meal-times. It brings before us the adage, "Fingers 
were made before forks," the application of which will show how the 
fingers of one having no fork were in danger when he cut his meat. 

COIN SCALES. 

" When there is much counterfeit Gold abroad, every man will have 
his scales, and not only look and rub, but he will weigh every piece he 
takes." - Here we have an indication of what was essential for every 
person who received coins in those days of degraded and short weight 
money. The scales were a necessary part of every pecuniary trans- 
action, even if the question of counterfeit coin did not come in. 

GARDENING. 

"As with Apricott trees rooted in the earth, but leaning on the wall,"^ 
obviously refers to the method of training fruit trees on walls with 
southern exposures which prevails to-day in England; but "A 
Gardiner may intend to turn a Crab tree stock into an Apple-tree, his 
Intention will not alter the Nature of it until it be actually ingraffed 
upon " * may have been suggested by grafting accomplished in Cam- 
bridge gardens. 

CHURCH DISCIPLINE AND VISITING COMMITTEES. 

"I conceive," he says, " 'tis casting off Christs power, to take away 
any power from Magistrates to punish sins against the first Table ; of 
which errors and heresies in Religion are part." ' This fairly ex- 
presses his hostile and unyielding attitude towards those whom he 
considers heretics, and yet his liberality leads him to urge his parish- 
ioners to welcome strangers. He says: 

Many complain that New England hath so little love. Non-members 
not visited, not regarded (though many times unjustly). Oh, they thought 

' Certain Select Cases Resolved, p. 7. 

= The Parable, p. 223. 

' Ibid. p. 127. 

♦ The Sound Believer (Boston, 1742), p. 206. 

' Subjection to Christ, p. 116. 



152 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [April, 

to see so much love, and care, and pity ; but here they may live and never 
be spoken to, never visited ! Oh, take heed of this ; Nothing beautifies a 
Christian in the eyes of others more than much love (hypocrisie is naught :) 
Oh excellence; visit poor families, sit one half hour and speak to dis- 
couraged hearts. Shew kindness to strangers; Such you vi^ere; I'll 
warrant God will bless you, this was the Glory of Christ, full of grace and 
truth.' 

The visiting committee dates back, it will be seen, to colonial times. 

ARMOR. 

In those days our soldiers wore armor. Shepard refers to this, 
setting forth the reluctance of a man to expose himself without his 
armor; "but," he adds, "when he hath his armour on of proof, and 
such armour that he knows let him receive never so many wounds, yet 
he shall escape with his life," ^ then he is ready to go forward. 

SOLDIERS. 

As for soldiers themselves, he regards the individual as unobjection- 
able, but he says "when they are got into a knot together; now they 
go strong against all lawes of God or man." ^ Evidently he had 
experienced some serious difficulty with riotous soldiers, for he goes 
on to say, with an apology for what has just been repeated : " 'Tis not 
now an Artillery day, only I must speak a word, because it is a thing 
of moment and matter of great conscience with me." * 

INDIANS AND BEGGARS. 

He evidently had not much use for the native red men and speaks 
of them "as poor naked Indians," ^ "poor Indians, herds of beasts." " 
As for beggars, one would not expect to find any indication of profes- 
sional mendicancy in a pioneer community. There are nevertheless 
references to beggars, and the following smacks of professional 

' The Parable, part ii. p. 61. 

" Ibid. p. 41. 

" Subjection to Christ, pp. 119-120. 

• Ibid. p. 121. 

= The Parable, p. S9. 

* Subjection to Christ, p. 192. 



190S] SERVANTS IN COLONIAL DATS 153 

methods : "it is with faith as with a poor woman that hath a child, and 
hath nothing in the world to give it, she takes the child at her back and 
goeth from door to door, and what she getteth she giveth to the child." ' 



SERVANTS. 

A large part of the hard work in the Colony was performed in those 
days by indentured servants. During their term of service the position 
of these servants was anomalous. They shared with their masters 
the exposure incident to pioneer life under conditions of climatic 
changes which made it inevitable that"even the best protected must 
suffer, and in addition they were subject to the caprices of those having 
charge of their work. The time of the servant belonged absolutely to 
the master, and the latter had the right to compel the service of the 
former by any means at his command. The relations between master 
and servant were therefore suitable topics for advice from a preacher, 
and Shepard discusses the matter on several occasions. He asserts 
that there is much discontent ; that servants are weary of their masters 
and masters weary of their servants ; that each complains of the other. 

The Master saith the Servant is unruly, froward, surly, slothful, unfaith- 
ful, untrusty, and must not be spoken to ; the Servant saith his Master is 
passionate, unkinde, wants pity to his body, and sometimes strikes him 
without cause, and much more careless of liis soul, never instructs him.^ 

He says that one who has not yet been adopted by the Church is as 
yet no son but a slave to Satan, "a servant at best, working for Wages 
only, and fear of the Whip, who shalt not always abide in God's House 
as Sons shall do." ^ He speaks of servants casting off their subjection 
"to their Governour," and discusses the condition of affairs as follows : 

When they are not obedient, but answer again ; if they be let alone, then 
idle; if rebuk'd and curb'd, then stubborne and proud and worse for 
chiding; and finde fault with their wages, and victuals and lodging; 
weary and vex out the heart of ]\Iaster and Mistresse, and make them 

' The Saints Jewel, p. 184. This is printed in connection with The Sincere 
Convert, •nith continuous pagination. 
* The Parable, part ii. p. 55. 
^ The Sound Behever, p. 216. 



154 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [April, 

weary of their lives ; their God also almost sometimes ; and that by such 
professing Religion, and all that they might be from under the yoke.' 

Here we have a picture of a condition of affairs in the Colony in 
Shepard's day which is in some respects appalling. Servants dis- 
contented, insolent and rebellious, held to their work by fear of the 
whip, and seeking to ameliorate their condition by hypocritical 
pretensions of conversion. On the other hand, the masters are accused 
of being captious, wilful, and indifferent to the welfare of the servants, 
and the result is that masters and mistresses are weary of their lives. 

SICIQJESS, REMEDIES, AND MEDICAL PRACTICE. 

Of sickness we have only allusions to the capriciousness of the 
appetite of a consumptive.^ Shepard had suffered in his family from 
the inroads of this disease, and doubtless his comments were based 
upon experience. Of remedies and medical practice there are but 
few hints. Men, he intimates, will not go to drug stores or call upon 
physicians if they have remedies at hand — or to quote his own words : 

Now if a fainting man have Aqua-Vitae at his beds hciM he will not 
knock up a Shop-Keeper for it. Men that have a Balsome of their own to 
heal them, will not go to a Physitian.^ 

In the following excerpt, not only do we have a reference to one of the 
great remedies of the day, but a suggestion as to methods of adminis- 
tration which seems reasonable. "As surgeons when they let a man 
bleed, bid him look another way." * The sick-room diet and tonics are 
set forth as follows: 

Men that are sick and like to die, can eat no common wholesom meat, 
but are now nourished by conserves, and Alchermies, and Spirits of Gold.^ 

Alchemy, the predecessor of chemistry, furnishes this title for a com- 
pounded prescription, while in the last mentioned we have the famous 
auriim potabile. 

Here also is a bit of contemporary nursing practice : 

' Subjection to Christ, p. 132. = The Parable, pp. 107, 16G. 
' The Sincere Convert, p. 164. 

" The Saints Jewel (London, 1659), p. 197. Printed with the Sincere Convert 

and ha%'ing continuous pagination. ' The Parable, p. 110. 



1908] THERAPEUTICS — PHYSICS 155 

What is the End of the Mother in laying Wormwood and Gall upon her 
Breast, but that the Child by tasting the Bitterness of it might be weaned 
and have his Stomach and Will turned from it.' 

The comparison of the relative merits of "dish-milk and flit-milk" 
with "breast-milk" as food obviously belongs in the same category." 
If he had spelled "flit" "fleet," we could easily have identiiied it with 
skimmed milk by means of our dictionaries. 

The reduction of inflammation in the case of a burn is thus ex- 
pressed : " As 'tis in Burnings so the Fire must be first taken out before 
there can be any healing." ^ His views as to the proper treatment of a 
demented person bring before us with painful precision the lamentable 
condition of these unfortunates until quite recent times, if indeed we 
can feel positively assured that the opinion that he expresses has 
everywhere disappeared : 

Sick and weake men are to be tender'd much, but Lunatick and 
Phanatick men are in best care; when they are fetter'd and bound. ^ 

PHYSICS. 

His knowledge of the laws of physics is perhaps up to the times in 
which he lived, and his references to the subject, although rare, are 
just enough to give an idea of what it amounted to. " It's a question," 
he says, " whether the beams of the Sun are fire : Some demonstrate it 
thus. Take a Glasse and gather together the beams, it burns." ^ 
Here is his explanation of the law of gravity: 

As 'tis with a stone, cast it up its against the bent of it, because the 
nature of it is to rest in the Centre, and hence it comes down again. It is 
not by internal bent but by external vis or force." 

A few pages further on in the volume from which the last quotation 
was extracted he reveals a theory prevalent in his day in the following 
words : 

' The Sound Believer, p. 62. 

^ The Parable, part ii. p. 97. 

' The Sound Believer, pp. Ill, 112. 

* Theses Sabbaticse, The Sanctification of the Sabbath, p. 43. 

» The Parable, p. 57. 

« Ibid. p. 211. 



156 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [ApRIL, 

Some naturalists observe, that Brass would be Gold, it tends to it, had 
it but more heat of the Sun to correct it, and to bring it to perfection.' 

The following will be recognized as a description of the telescope : 
" Optick glasses will take within them the present image of things afar 
off." - He speaks several times of "Bristoe Stones" which resemble 
pearls so closely that Jewellers alone can distinguish them. He refers 
in this to Bristol Stones, which being rock crystal might perhaps be 
mistaken for diamonds, the word pearls being used in this connection 
in its generic sense, for valuables or jewels. He does, indeed, in one 
place say, "There are your Bristow Stones like Diamonds." ^ 

Speaking of the malleability of lead he says, ".as Austin shows by a 
Similitude of Lead which some Artists can beat so small as to make it 
swim," ^ and he describes sympathetic or invisible ink in the following 
terms: "As letters writ with the juice of Oranges, cannot be read 
until brought under the fire." ^ Referring to magnetic attraction, he 
says : " Just as it is with the Load-stone drawing the Iron, who would 
think that the Iron would be drawn by it ? But there is a secret 
Vertue coming from the Stone which draws it; and so it comes and is 
united to it." * 

GEOGRAPHY. 

The Beginning of the Sabbath is devoted to a discussion of the 
hour when the day should begin and includes, of course, the tjme when 
it should end. By means of a geographical illustration he disposes of 
certain theories of which he disapproves. After stating that some 
would measure the Sabbath by the daylight, would have it from 
the sun-rising to sun-setting, he goes on — "but if the day-light be the 
measure of the Sabbath, those that live in some parts of Russia and 
East-land must have once a yeere a very long Sabbath, for there are 
some times of the yeere wherein they have day-light a moneth 
together." ' 

» The Parable, p. 227. 

' The Parable, part ii. p. 23. 

' The Sincere Convert, p. 114. 

* The Sound BeHever, p. 238. 
' The Sincere Convert, p. 52. 

• The Sound BelieverjD. 142. 

' Theses Sabbaticae, Tlie Beginning of the Sabbath, p. 3. 



1908] BOTANISTS — IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT 157 

ENGLISH HISTORY. 

References to English history are rare in Shepard's pages, but one, 
at least, is worth noting. "Remember," he says, "that the Discovery 
of Faux in the Vault, was the Preservation of England." ' The cele- 
bration of Guy Fawkes's day was likely to impress this event upon 
his memory in a special manner since he was born upon the 5th 
of November, 1605. 

HERBALISTS. 

NaturaUsts were not so closely subdivided in those days as they are 
to-day. Moreover, not much attention was then paid to the study of 
the various branches of natural science. It is not strange, therefore, to 
find none of them mentioned, unless under herbalists he meant botan- 
ists. He speaks of the herbalist who finds out about plants from books, 
but perhaps treads under foot the very plants that he is after, without 
knowing them.^ This might pass for the description of an incompetent 
botanist, but when he speaks of " Herbalists, that treat of the Sovereign 
excellencies of several herbs," he evidently refers to an herb doctor, 
and when he adds, "but when they come to gather them in the garden, 
they take their counterfeits in the room of them," ^ he shows his con- 
tempt for them. The similarity of the ending of each reference makes 
it probable that he only had in mind herbalists who made use of herbs 
in their therapeutics. 

CHILDREN'S MANNERS. 

The ladies of his congregation must at times have shrunk under his 
castigating criticisms. Here, for instance, is one that may have pene- 
trated many a household: "^Vhat little hope of a happy generation 
after us, when many among us scarce know how to teach their children 
manners?"* 

BANIOIUPTCY AND IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT. 

Bankruptcy and imprisonment for debt furnish illustrations drawn 
from the conditions of colonial trade. It is evident that somewhere, 

' The Sound Believer, p. 33. ' Ibid. p. 215. 

° The Parable, p. 41. * The Parable, part ii. p. 7. 



158 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [April, 

perhaps in England, he had seen some respectable merchant who had 
failed in business reduced to the necessity of peddling the wares that 
he formerly sold over the counter.' The fact that such an one has no 
other resource than to begin life again on the same lines in a smaller 
way impressed him, and he alludes to it more than once. He refers 
to one "in chains for debt," " without expression of sympathy, simply 
saying that if the debtor gets out without satisfying the debt he will be 
taken again ; if, however, the debt is satisfied, he will be set free. 

ACTORS AND LOVERS. 

During Shepard's collegiate career he tasted some of those experi- 
ences in life which were frowned upon by the nonconformist preachers 
of his day, and it is perhaps to that period of wider experience that we 
owe references to actors who act the part of kings but "look upon them 
in their tyring rooms they are but base varlets." ^ Perhaps also it is to 
this interval of gayer life that we owe " the foolish lover," who when he 
goes to woo a lady falls "in love with lier hand-maid that is only to 
lead him to her." ^ It would seem to be quite sure that this could not 
be founded on an experience in rural New England. 

FOOTBALL. 

Shepard knew nothing of the Rugby game of football. The old- 
fashioned game was to be won by superiority of kicking. The follow- 
ing reference seems to bring Satan before us as an expert in the kicking 
game: "Satan now appears with the ball at his foot, and seems to 
threaten in time to carry all before him, and to kick and carry God's 
precious Sabbaths out of the world with him." ^ 

HUMOR. 

Humor is, perhaps, the last thing we should look for in these 
sermons. Yet there are indications that Shepard could appreciate 
humorous satire. "Wrastling with his shadow," ° and "can see no 

' The Parable, part i. p. 80; The Sincere Convert, p. 163. 

' The Parable, part i. p. 191. 

^ Theses Sabbatica;, The Sanctification of the Sabbath, p. 88. 

• Ibid. p. 175. 

"■ Ibid. p. 49. 

" Theses Sabbaticce, The Morality of the Sabbath, p. 28. 



1908] HTJMOR — COLONIAL POLITIC^ 159 

further than his own buttons," ' are both of them pointed, vigorous, 
and humorous expressions, which need no glossary. " Aliquando 
bonus dormitat Honierus," '' he says when he trips up an opponent in 
a polemical discussion. " He who keeps not his shop, his shop will not 
keep him," ^ is a saying of profound truth but decidedly humorous. 
"The Elder's foot is now too big for his shoe " * must have tickled his 
congregation, especially if they could make a personal application of 
the saying. "And not set the whole house on fire to roast their own 
Egs " ^ squarely anticipates Charles Lamb's method of roasting a pig. 

ENGLISH FLOUR. 

. In a category of evils, such as : " the Family is sick ; the Cattle die ; 
Servants are unfaithful;" he puts on even terms with the foregoing, 
"the Enghsh flower is gone."" The colonists in early times were 
frequently dependent upon Indian meal, but this gives a hint of their 
real liking for wheaten flour. 

POLITICS. 

In 1638 Shepard preached the Election Sermon. An abstract of 
what was then said has fortunately been preserved. The Sermon 
was inspired by the exciting political events of that year. Vane's 
indiscreet manifestation of his interest and faith in Mrs. Hutchinson 
permitted Winthrop easily to undermine his power outside of Boston. 
The Court of Election was, through Winthrop's adroitness, held at 
Cambridge. The day was full of excitement and of personal conflict, 
and the result was the overthrow of Vane. The Sermon is full of veiled 
personal allusions, from which I select one which undoubtedly refers 
to Vane's following and at the same time expresses a view as to the 
political opinions of the people which would pass current to-day. 

■ Theses Sabbaticae, The Morality of the Sabbath, p. 88. 
' A Treatise of Liturgies, p. 42. 
' Subjection to Christ, p. 92. 

• Ibid. p. 106. 

* Preface by Thomas Shepard — without pagination — to A Reply to a 
Confutation of some Grounds for Infants Baptisme, by George Philips (London, 
1645). See sixth page. 

» The Parable, part ii. p. 103. 



160 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [ApRIL, 

"The multitude," says Shepard, "are exceeding apt to be led by 
colours, like birds by glasses and larks by lures." ' 

SEPARATISTS. 

The phrase " Anabaptists, Familists and rigid Separatists, and who 
have privily crept into New-England churches," ' is very striking. 
The classification of the rigid Separatists with obnoxious people like 
Familists and Anabaptists betrays an unlooked for clinging to the 
Anglican Church on the part of a people who had abandoned all 
outward signs of adhesion to that Church, and of a pastor who looked 
upon it as sinful that he took out a licence in London to preach. This 
phrase is introduced in a discussion of church government. Men who 
will not acknowledge the authority of the church rules arrogate to 
themselves the entire authority of the church, "not only," he says, 
"single members or Officers, but Pastor, and Teacher and Elder and 
all." ^ Such men are especially to be found among Anabaptists, etc. 

Dunster, the President of the College, was an Antipoedobaptist, and 
his outspoken views on this subject ultimately led to the termination of 
his collegiate service. Shepard on his part very likely had Dunster in 
view in some of his hits at Anabaptists. His allusions to the doctrine 
which Dunster held in such esteem are at all times contemptuous. 
For instance, speaking of Anabaptists, he says : 

They would not have any Children to be Baptized : and so they make 
the condition of the Children of the Saints of God (dear to God), in as 
miserable an estate as the Children of any Turk or Pagan and but as 
lawful to Baptize them, as a Cat or a Dog. * 

Again, in a preface to a publication by a friend, he says : 

It is much to be feared, that the doctrine of Anabaptisme, especially in 
this eontroversie concerning Infants, will gangrene farre, and leaven 
much; ....'• 

' New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxiv. 363. 

" Subjection to Clirist, p. 100. ' Ibid. p. 100. 

' Wine for Gospel Wantons : or Cautions against Spiritual Drunkenness (Cam- 
bridge, 166S), p. 9. 

^ Tills is to be found on the third page of a preface by Shepard, which has no 
pagination, to A Reply to a Confutation of Some Grounds for Infant Baptisms, 
by George Philips (London, 1645). 



1908] ARCHAIC EXPRESSIONS 161 

Such language as this concerning a doctrine which Dunster held so 
dear indicates that there must have been friction between these two 
men, holding the most important positions in the little village in which 
they both lived. This might perhaps have been inferred from 
Shepard's The Church Membership of Children, which warmly 
advocates his ideas upon this subject. 

ARCHAIC EXPRESSIONS. 

WTien we meet archaic expressions or run across unusual customs, 
we cannot feel sure that an explanation of these is to be sought in New 
England manners and customs. Shepard brought over with him 
memories of Old England, and his rules of life are deduced from the 
Scriptures. The New Testament, for instance, furnishes authority 
for the propriety of rubbing ears of corn on the Sabbath,' while it is the 
Mosaic Law which prohibits work on the Tabernacle on that day.^ 
"Kitchen physick," ^ an expression used more than once, probably 
came from over the water, but it doubtless referred to food as the best 
cure for the disease of hunger. "Fired him out," * which occurs in the 
Autobiography as well as in a sermon, sounds like slang, but it has 
Shakespeare behind it, and when he wrote " the Bishop fired me out," 
he evidently meant to put the transaction in vivid form. A reference to 
"Bonners Cole-house" ^ coupled with Newgate as a place where those 
were confined who would not "subscribe" — an allusion presumably 
to persecutions for heresy — brings before us Bishop Bonner and the 
Windsor Coal-house, a reference familiar probably to his hearers, but 
obscure to most of us to-day. "Kiss the clinke" " is another quaint 
expression that is met with, the reference being plainly to the prison 
called the Clink. "Walke thus with thy bootes Frenche like"' 
apparently from the context means to walk pompously, to strut, while 
on the other hand there is an idea of depression in the description of 
one whose heart sinks when sin and weakness, death and condem- 

' Luke, vi. 2. 
^ Exodus, xx-xi. 15. 
' The Parable, p. 18. 
* Autobiography, p. 34. 

' Subjection to Christ, p. 97. For the explanation of this I am indebted to 
Professor Roger B. Merriman. 
" Subjection to Christ, p. 11 
' Ibid. p. 27. 

U 



162 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [April, 

nation wrap him about like "Jonah's Weeds."' The expression 
" John's candle flies " may perhaps be based upon some of the illumi- 
nations on the eve of St. John's Day.^ 

The foregoing extracts have been obtained from eleven different 
volumes,' printed under the titles given heretofore in the notes, and 
containing in some instances subdivisions with separate titles, or 
perhaps two or more sermons, each with its own sub-title. Besides 
these I have examined three other publications which yielded nothing 
serviceable for my purposes.* The various editions of Shepard's works 
which have appeared from 1641 down to the present time, in one 
form or another, the authorship of which cannot be questioned, 
number sixty-eight. Besides these Allibone gives three other titles, all 
of which are questionable, one being — I am quite sure — a pamphlet 
by Giles Firmin.^ Sabin gives the titles of twenty-one editions of 
The Sincere Convert, and fourteen of The Sound Believer. 
Fortunately for the person who cares to examine Shepard's writings, 
these are all reprints, so that the examination of one will do for all 
bearing the same title. While these extracts from Shepard's sermons 
throw .some light upon colonial life, they are perhaps of more interest 
to the topical student than to the general reader. At all events, they 
reveal to us that our ancestors were human. 

' The Sound Believer, p. 101. For the meaning of this, Professor Kittredge, 
who has helped me in solving some of these questions, says : See Jonah, ii. 5. 

^ Certain Select Cases Resolved, p. 49. 

' (1) Autobiography. (2) The Church Membership of Children. (3) New 
England's Lamentation for Old England's Errours. (4) The Parable of the Ten 
Virgins. (5) The Saints Jewel, with The Sincere Convert. (6) The Sincere Con- 
vert. (7) Some [or Certain in some editions] Select Cases Resolved. (8) The 
Sound Believer. (9) Subjection to Christ. (10) Theses Sabbaticre. (11) Trea- 
tise of Liturgies. (12) Wine for Wanton Gospellers. The Saints Jewel, which is 
separately cited, is only to be found in connection with The Sincere Convert. The 
Day-breaking if not the Sun-rising, etc., is the title of another pamphlet included 
by Sabin among Shepard's works, but not considered by me as entitled to this 
attribution. 

' The Clear Sun Shine of the Gospel breaking forth upon the Indians, etc., 
separately published; First principles of the Oracles of God, to be found in 
Three Valuable Pieces ; and Meditation and Spiritual Experiences, also to be 
found in Three Valuable Pieces, but which was subsequently published by itself. 
The Sincere Convert in the form of a translation into the Indian tongue is also 
to be seen in some of our libraries. 

' The Liturgical Considerator Considered in Reply to Dr. Gaudon, London, 
1661. 



OCT 8 I90t 



LIBRfiRY OF CONGRESS 



011 272 131 9 ♦ 



